Most piezoelectric motors generally impart motion to moveable elements to which they are coupled back and forth along a single straight line, hereinafter referred to as an “axis of motion”. To impart motion to a moveable element selectively along more than one axis of motion, generally a relatively complicated transmission system is used to couple a different piezoelectric motor to the moveable element for each different axis of motion desired.
For example, to provide an xy-position stage capable of positioning an element mounted to the stage at any xy-coordinate in a range of xy-coordinates along an x-axis and y-axis, the stage generally comprises an x-stage mounted to a y-stage. The x-stage is coupled to a motor controllable to move the stage along the x-axis and position the stage at a given desired x-coordinate and the y-stage is coupled to a motor controllable to move the y-stage along the y-axis. To position the element at given xy-coordinate the x and y-motors are controlled to move the x and y-stages respectively along the x-axis and y-axis and position the element at the desired xy-coordinate.